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ward, they have been mercilessly borne down upon the sands, and being unable, from sheer 

 exhaustion, to rise on the wing again, have been beaten to death by the rolling surf or pounced 

 upon and devoured by a hovering Sea-Gull. On picking them up and placing them in the pocket 

 of my overcoat, they have soon revived, and in some instances have lived for several days on a diet 

 of fresh meat, minced into small pieces. From the increased activity they always manifested on 

 the approach of night, seeking the darker corners of the room and fluttering about in a very 

 excited manner, with a rapid twittering note, I conclude that, whether at sea or on land, this 

 Petrel is more nocturnal than diurnal in its habits. During the day the eyes were always half 

 closed, imparting a peculiar fretful expression to the face. One circumstance interested me 

 much, as illustrating the force of habit. On taking up one of these birds and inserting its bill in 

 a glass of water, it at once commenced to move its feet, as if in the act of swimming or treading 

 the waves. I repeated the experiment many times, and always with the same result. 



In rising from a plane surface I observed that they always accomplished it by running a few 

 feet with the wings outstretched, so as to give the body an impetus forward ; and they seemed 

 never to tire of climbing over the armchairs or other inclined surfaces in the room, using both 

 wings and feet in this operation. At sea they are very active on the wing, and are rarely seen to 

 rest on the water ; they hover over the rolling billows, and dance, fairy-like, in the trough of the 

 sea, sometimes poising their bodies like butterflies over a flower, at others cutting the air with the 

 swiftness of a meteor, and always apparently intent on the one object of seeking the small marine 

 animals on which they feed. 



